Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. This trio of nations has become one of the most violent regions in the world in recent years, with swathes of all three countries under the control of drug traffickers and street gangs who rob, rape and extort ordinary citizens with impunity.The Obama administration is now weighing giving refugee status to young people from Honduras as part of a plan to deal with the influx of unaccompanied minors arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border, White House officials said Thursday.A delegation of California lawmakers just returned from visiting Central America, including Watsonville native and State Assemblyman Luis Alejo.California is home to the largest population of El Salvadorans and Guatemalans outside of Central America. Alejo and the California delegation met with the president of El Salvador and Guatemala to learned about the influx's root causes. "Some of these countries have serious problems with gangs and extreme poverty. In El Salvador, where we visited, the threat of staying home and being forced into a gang or being a victim of violence or sexual assault is very real," Alejo said told KSBW at his Salinas office on Thursday. "Guatemala is completely different, it's very poor, and mostly kids coming from the western highlands who are trying to flee area, because there is nothing there for them," Alejo said. The 10-day trip was a political, economic and social mission to explore what impacted states like California can do to meet the humanitarian challenges presented by this exodus of children. Alejo said California is "key" in this discussion and can work with Washington to support social and economic reforms in Central America.The delegation members paid for their own airline tickets and hotel rooms out of their own pockets -- no taxpayer money was used.Obama's refugee status plan would involve screening youths in Honduras, one of the world's most violent nations, to determine whether they qualify for refugee status. Similar in-country screening programs were set up in East Asia after the Vietnam War and in Haiti in the 1990s.The officials cautioned that no final decision on the matter has been made and said the proposal is among a range of ideas the White House is considering. The officials briefed reporters ahead of President Barack Obama's meeting Friday with Central American leaders on the condition they not be identified by name.The United Nations has been pushing the U.S. to treat children arriving at the southern border from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador as refugees displaced by armed conflict.Since Oct. 1, more than 16,000 unaccompanied children from Honduras have been caught crossing the Mexican border illegally. At the same time, more than 30,300 Hondurans traveling as families have also been arrested.The U.S. has resisted calling the situation a refugee crisis, though Obama and top officials have called it a "humanitarian crisis."It is unclear what would happen to children and families who have already made the dangerous trek to the United States if the refugee plan is implemented. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson has repeatedly said that there is no free pass for immigrants who come to the United States illegally and that those who are caught crossing the border would be sent home. The administration would also have to outline what the refugee proposal would mean for Honduran immigrants already in the United States.Many immigrants flooding across the southern border of the U.S. say they're fleeing violent gangs in Central America.Experts, however, say those gangs are actually a byproduct of U.S. policies in the 1990s that sent many immigrants back to Central America after they had been indoctrinated into gang culture in this country. The violence they took with them easily took hold and flourished in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala - countries with weak, dysfunctional governments.WHERE DO CENTRAL AMERICAN GANGS COME FROM?One study estimated some 350,000 Salvadoran immigrants illegally came to Southern California from 1980 to 1985 while trying to escape civil war and corruption in their home country.They arrived with few English skills and many settled in poor neighborhoods with strong Mexican- and African-American gangs.To survive and avoid bullying, they formed gangs such as Mara Salvatrucha or joined others such as the 18th Street gang. They committed serious crimes and were sent to prison, where they were further exposed to violent gang culture.In the 1990s, the U.S. increased deportations of immigrants facing criminal charges, particularly gang members. As many as 1,500 Salvadoran, Guatemalan and Honduran youths were sent back each month to Central America. They arrived with the notoriety of being a Los Angeles gangster."There's this huge explosion in all three of these countries of the gangs and the number of gang members, partially because it's the way of street kids getting status and reputation, and partially because it's a way of surviving," said Tom Ward, a University of Southern California associate professor who has studied the issue.WHAT IS THE RELATION BETWEEN THE GANGS AND THE INFLUX OF IMMIGRANTS AT THE U.S BORDER?Many people fleeing Central America say they are running from violence perpetrated by the gangs. But the migration is also an effort to reunify families.At least 80 percent of youths stopped at the border have one parent or a close relative already in the United States, said Doris Meissner, former commissioner of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service and senior fellow for the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington.Family members already in the U.S. have saved enough money to pay a smuggler to bring their children across the border so boys won't be forcibly recruited into gangs and daughters won't be subjected to sexual violence.WHY ARE WE SEEING THIS INFLUX OF IMMIGRANTS, ESPECIALLY CHILDREN, NOW?Word of mouth in Central American is strong and there is a pervasive belief that the U.S. has been relaxing its immigration stance toward minors. The belief was spurred by recent discussions about possibly changing U.S. immigration policy and by a change in U.S. law in 2008 that provided more rights to minors at the border that included a hearing before a judge.At the same time, a crackdown on cartels caused those criminal organizations and their trafficking operations to spread from Mexico to Central America. More people decided it was time to leave for the U.S. where they believed they would be allowed to stay.Migrants were told to have their children turn themselves into the Border Patrol and they would be given a permit to enter the U.S., said Eric Olson, associate director of the Latin American Program for the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. The permit, however, was really an order to appear for a deportation hearing. Even so, with court backlogs and a shortage of judges, it can take as long as three years to get a hearing. In the meantime, children are reunited with family in the U.S. and live far away from the violence at home.

SALINAS, Calif. —

Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. This trio of nations has become one of the most violent regions in the world in recent years, with swathes of all three countries under the control of drug traffickers and street gangs who rob, rape and extort ordinary citizens with impunity.

The Obama administration is now weighing giving refugee status to young people from Honduras as part of a plan to deal with the influx of unaccompanied minors arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border, White House officials said Thursday.

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A delegation of California lawmakers just returned from visiting Central America, including Watsonville native and State Assemblyman Luis Alejo.

California is home to the largest population of El Salvadorans and Guatemalans outside of Central America. Alejo and the California delegation met with the president of El Salvador and Guatemala to learned about the influx's root causes.

"Some of these countries have serious problems with gangs and extreme poverty. In El Salvador, where we visited, the threat of staying home and being forced into a gang or being a victim of violence or sexual assault is very real," Alejo said told KSBW at his Salinas office on Thursday.

"Guatemala is completely different, it's very poor, and mostly kids coming from the western highlands who are trying to flee area, because there is nothing there for them," Alejo said.

The 10-day trip was a political, economic and social mission to explore what impacted states like California can do to meet the humanitarian challenges presented by this exodus of children. Alejo said California is "key" in this discussion and can work with Washington to support social and economic reforms in Central America.

The delegation members paid for their own airline tickets and hotel rooms out of their own pockets -- no taxpayer money was used.

Obama's refugee status plan would involve screening youths in Honduras, one of the world's most violent nations, to determine whether they qualify for refugee status. Similar in-country screening programs were set up in East Asia after the Vietnam War and in Haiti in the 1990s.

The officials cautioned that no final decision on the matter has been made and said the proposal is among a range of ideas the White House is considering. The officials briefed reporters ahead of President Barack Obama's meeting Friday with Central American leaders on the condition they not be identified by name.

The United Nations has been pushing the U.S. to treat children arriving at the southern border from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador as refugees displaced by armed conflict.

Since Oct. 1, more than 16,000 unaccompanied children from Honduras have been caught crossing the Mexican border illegally. At the same time, more than 30,300 Hondurans traveling as families have also been arrested.

The U.S. has resisted calling the situation a refugee crisis, though Obama and top officials have called it a "humanitarian crisis."

It is unclear what would happen to children and families who have already made the dangerous trek to the United States if the refugee plan is implemented. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson has repeatedly said that there is no free pass for immigrants who come to the United States illegally and that those who are caught crossing the border would be sent home. The administration would also have to outline what the refugee proposal would mean for Honduran immigrants already in the United States.

Many immigrants flooding across the southern border of the U.S. say they're fleeing violent gangs in Central America.

Experts, however, say those gangs are actually a byproduct of U.S. policies in the 1990s that sent many immigrants back to Central America after they had been indoctrinated into gang culture in this country. The violence they took with them easily took hold and flourished in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala - countries with weak, dysfunctional governments.

WHERE DO CENTRAL AMERICAN GANGS COME FROM?

One study estimated some 350,000 Salvadoran immigrants illegally came to Southern California from 1980 to 1985 while trying to escape civil war and corruption in their home country.

They arrived with few English skills and many settled in poor neighborhoods with strong Mexican- and African-American gangs.

To survive and avoid bullying, they formed gangs such as Mara Salvatrucha or joined others such as the 18th Street gang. They committed serious crimes and were sent to prison, where they were further exposed to violent gang culture.

In the 1990s, the U.S. increased deportations of immigrants facing criminal charges, particularly gang members. As many as 1,500 Salvadoran, Guatemalan and Honduran youths were sent back each month to Central America. They arrived with the notoriety of being a Los Angeles gangster.

"There's this huge explosion in all three of these countries of the gangs and the number of gang members, partially because it's the way of street kids getting status and reputation, and partially because it's a way of surviving," said Tom Ward, a University of Southern California associate professor who has studied the issue.

WHAT IS THE RELATION BETWEEN THE GANGS AND THE INFLUX OF IMMIGRANTS AT THE U.S BORDER?

Many people fleeing Central America say they are running from violence perpetrated by the gangs. But the migration is also an effort to reunify families.

At least 80 percent of youths stopped at the border have one parent or a close relative already in the United States, said Doris Meissner, former commissioner of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service and senior fellow for the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington.

Family members already in the U.S. have saved enough money to pay a smuggler to bring their children across the border so boys won't be forcibly recruited into gangs and daughters won't be subjected to sexual violence.

WHY ARE WE SEEING THIS INFLUX OF IMMIGRANTS, ESPECIALLY CHILDREN, NOW?

Word of mouth in Central American is strong and there is a pervasive belief that the U.S. has been relaxing its immigration stance toward minors. The belief was spurred by recent discussions about possibly changing U.S. immigration policy and by a change in U.S. law in 2008 that provided more rights to minors at the border that included a hearing before a judge.

At the same time, a crackdown on cartels caused those criminal organizations and their trafficking operations to spread from Mexico to Central America. More people decided it was time to leave for the U.S. where they believed they would be allowed to stay.

Migrants were told to have their children turn themselves into the Border Patrol and they would be given a permit to enter the U.S., said Eric Olson, associate director of the Latin American Program for the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. The permit, however, was really an order to appear for a deportation hearing. Even so, with court backlogs and a shortage of judges, it can take as long as three years to get a hearing. In the meantime, children are reunited with family in the U.S. and live far away from the violence at home.